Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
He lost his famous mother when he was a boy, became a teen idol, had a storybook wedding, and he's second in line to be King of England. The monarchy Prince William inherits will be like nothing his predecessors have experienced - if it exists at all. "A Year with the Windsors" concludes.
Read MoreHe's been waiting for the throne longer than any Prince of Wales before him, and he's changed the nature of the monarchy while he's been waiting. But will we ever see King Charles III? 'A Year with the Windsors' takes a look at the heir.
Read MoreLodestar or mirror? Passé or ne plus ultra? Elizabeth II has presided with consistency over an inconsistent age. And what have we learned of her?
Read MoreWhen his brother the king abdicated, shy Prince Bertie suddenly became king - and he was just settling in when the World War II threw his kingdom into chaos. 'A Year with the Windsors' continues.
Read MoreWhen he was Prince of Wales, he was the nation's darling, but when Edward VIII came to the throne, he became the greatest threat the monarchy had ever faced.
Read MoreShe was married to two kings, reigned during the advent of trench warfare and the suppression of suffragettes, and stayed all her life a delightful dinner guest; A Year With the Windsors continues with the fascinating and fastidious Queen Mary.
Read MoreIn The King's Speech, King George V is depicted as a fanatical tyrant; but his legacy is one of dignified flexibility in the face of revolutionary changes, and his temperament may have helped save the monarchy
Read MoreWhen the heir presumptive, Prince Eddy, died suddenly, the nation and empire was convulsed with mourning - and a century of speculation began! Had the lost prince been a simpleton, a saint, a catamite - even Jack the Ripper?
Read MoreWhen the long reign of Victoria ended, her son took the throne with a bonhomie the country hadn't seen in a century. The new king ate and entertained prodigiously - and mediated prodigiously as "the uncle of Europe." A Year with the Windsors looks at Edward VII.
Read MoreHer reign was epic in length and social impact, but it very nearly didn't happen at all. She ruled through two generations of her people, and she left the British monarchy very different from how she found it. She is Queen Victoria, and our Year with the Windsors starts as it must: with her.
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.